Inside The New York Botanical Garden
Cuba
Posted in Exhibitions, The Orchid Show on April 6 2010, by Plant Talk
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Jessica Blohm is Interpretive Specialist for Public Education. |
The statue of La Giraldilla you see atop a tower in the Conservatory’s Palms Gallery reflecting pool as you enter The Orchid Show: Cuba in Flower represents one of the most ancient and best-loved symbols of the city of Havana. The statue sits atop one of the oldest stone fortresses in the Americas, Castillo de la Real Fuerza (Castle of the Royal Force), a defensive fort built in 1538 after an attack on Havana by French pirates.
The bronze statue, created by Cuban sculptor Jeronimo Martin Pinzon, was added to the Castle in the early 1630s. The female figure is thought to represent Doña Isabel de Bobadilla, wife of Cuban Governor Hernando de Soto. When Governor de Soto sailed from Havana in 1539 to conquer Florida, he left Doña Isabel to govern in his stead, making her Havana’s only female governor.
Legend has it that from that day on, Doña Isabel spent hours in the highest part of the Castle awaiting her husband’s return. Governor de Soto died four years after his departure from Cuba on the banks of the great river he discovered, the Mississippi. A few days later, Doña Isabel is reported to have died of a broken heart. She is posed forever looking out to sea for her husband’s ship.
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Posted in Exhibitions, The Orchid Show on March 17 2010, by Plant Talk
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Jessica Blohm is Interpretive Specialist for Public Education. |
Orchids are one of the largest genera of flowering plants, with about 30,000 species worldwide. Orchids vary widely in their appearance. Many have stunningly beautiful flowers with stripes and spots, while others are almost ugly with hairs and even warty bumps. What do all these striking flowers have in common?
In describing a plant genus so vast and so diverse, it is almost safe to say that there are no rules. However, botanists generally agree that one feature above all others defines the orchid and differentiates it from virtually all other flowering plants: the fusion of the male portion of the flower (stamen) and female portion (pistil) into one structure called the column—often visible protruding from the center.
Look for these orchid parts on the more than 7,000 orchids in The Orchid Show: Cuba in Flower. (Click on the image to view it larger.)
Sepal—one of the three outer parts of an orchid flower that protects the petals
Pollinia—a solid mass of pollen found in the anther
Column—the fused sexual organ of an orchid flower
Petal—the three petals on an orchid are the true flower; one is modified into a lip
Lip (or Labellum)—a specialized petal, unique to orchids
Ovary—the part of the flower that develops into the fruit
Ovule—a small protuberance in the ovary, capable of forming a seed when fertilized
Stigma—the sticky area of the pistil that receives the pollen
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Posted in Exhibitions, The Orchid Show on March 2 2010, by Plant Talk
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Jessica Blohm is Interpretive Specialist for Public Education. |
Cuba is home to more than 300 species of orchids, some native only to Cuba. In The Orchid Show: Cuba in Flower, one of the replicas on display is the Soroa Orchidarium, a botanical garden dedicated to education and the cultivation and conservation of the world’s orchids.
The groves of Cuban royal palms (Roystonea regia) on either side of the Orchidarium are meant to evoke the hills of Sierra del Rosario, a biosphere reserve of over 65,000 acres within which the Orchidarium is nestled. The Orchidarium features thousands of tropical plants and flowers from around the world, including 700 species of orchids from Asia, South America, and other tropical regions, many no longer found in the wild.
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Posted in Exhibitions, The Orchid Show on January 28 2010, by Plant Talk
Massive Palms Arrive from Florida for Cuba-Themed Installation
Twenty-one Sabal palmetto palms, each over 1,200 pounds and about 15 feet tall, were loaded in Deland, Florida (top photos by John Lubischer), for a two-day trip to New York to be included in The Orchid Show: Cuba in Flower, which opens February 27. On arrival at the Garden last week (three bottom photos), they were unloaded to be planted in the seasonal galleries of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, where they will create a dramatic canopy effect, surrounded by a stunning display of orchids designed by Cuban-reared landscape architect Jorge Sánchez.
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The statue of La Giraldilla you see atop a tower in the Conservatory’s Palms Gallery reflecting pool as you enter The Orchid Show: Cuba in Flower represents one of the most ancient and best-loved symbols of the city of Havana. The statue sits atop one of the oldest stone fortresses in the Americas, Castillo de la Real Fuerza (Castle of the Royal Force), a defensive fort built in 1538 after an attack on Havana by French pirates.
